Temptation is not a sin. For our Lord Jesus Christ, who shared fully in our humanity, who joined Himself to our flesh and blood, was tempted in every possible way as we are, yet without sin. So temptation itself is not a sin.

And it is not a matter of good and evil. When you are tempted it is not to chose between that which is meet, right and salutary and that which is wicked and sinful. When you are tempted it is about how you are to receive the gifts of the Father who gives without any merit or worthiness in you, but according to His own fatherly, divine, goodness and mercy. Do you receive them according to His Word, with thanksgiving, waiting in patience upon the Lord? Or do you reach out to grasp that which the Lord, in His wisdom and according to His good and gracious will, has withheld from you? Temptation is not a matter of good and evil. It is a matter of life and death.

And Eve, who had been given her body and soul, eyes, ears and all her members, received only life from the Lord and Giver of Life. He had made her and all creatures and still cared for her. Indeed she, along with the man, were created in the image and likeness of God. They were the recipients of His love and provision. And out of love for them He had established a boundary, the parameters within which they lived in complete freedom; in faith toward God and in love toward one another. The Lord God was at the center of their life together and they lived freely by His mercy, receiving with thanksgiving all that He gave them according to His Word.

But according to that same Word of love, He withheld from them the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. His Word had placed a protective boundary around that one tree.

Thus Satan’s ploy, Did God actually say?, is not a temptation toward evil, but a temptation toward death. It was a temptation to doubt the good and gracious will and Word of the Lord God who held Adam and Eve as the apple of His eye, as the object of His love. This is always Satan’s ploy. He may be crafty, but he is not creative. His tricks all have the same aim - to get you to doubt the Word of the Lord.

Already leaning on her own understanding, Eve attempts to dialogue with Satan. We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” Whether she added this injunction or Adam did is irrelevant. She opened the door; she let in the head of the snake; and as soon as he can squeeze his head through, his whole body follows. The proper answer would have been, Be gone Satan!

But given the opportunity, he continues to preach his false doctrine. Left unchecked, unopposed, false teachers will always spin out half-truths and lies of false doctrine, always with the hint of truth, with a devilish cunning that makes them sound plausible. For they could not be like God, knowing good and evil. They were already created in the image of God, receiving from Him only good! But the trap had been set, the poison injected. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She had put her own experience above the Word of God where it pertained to His gifts. For surely God wanted them to eat? And He had of course created all things good and delightful. Plus, He who loved them would not withhold wisdom from them, right?

So it is when our own experience, our own emotion and rationalizations, supersede the Word of the Lord, then everything becomes permissible, nothing becomes out of bounds. For the man and woman transgressed the boundary placed by God in love and in doing so removed God from the center and placed themselves there. They went from being the object of God’s passion to being dispassionate interpreters of His Word; determining for themselves what was right and wrong according to their own experiences.

They now knew the good, but could not do it; and the evil they did not know, that is all that they now do. Succumbing to the temptation ripped them from life and sunk them deep into death. Adam begot children according his own image now; twisted and contorted creatures, curved inward on themselves, enemies of God and subjective interpreters of His Word. You are their progeny; with them you fell, plunged deep into death, scrapping for life, trying to climb back to God through your own experiences, emotion, and wisdom.

Repent. For you have been banished from Paradise and cannot achieve your own way back. You cannot climb to God. But for us men and for our salvation, Christ came down from heaven. He received His Father’s gift of Baptism at the hand of St John, inaugurating Him as the Messiah. Then He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. It is no coincidence that the Lord and Giver of Life drives Him out into to do battle with death. For where Adam and Eve failed, where Israel failed, where you have failed, this Man shall succeed.

And the temptation is the same: it is an attempt to doubt the Word of the Lord. The Word that declared this One to be the beloved Son of the Father in whom His heart delights. Thus Satan asks, “If you are the Father’s Son, if You are His beloved, then why is He withholding from you? Why does He not give you daily bread?” Though He hungers with pain beyond what we have experienced, He does not allow this to rationalize the Word. As it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God. He shall wait patiently upon the Lord. The Father who loves Him will not cease to provide for Him according to His good and gracious will. His experience will not reinterpret God’s Word.

But then we see how adept Satan is at citing Scripture, too; misquoting Psalm ninety-one; suggesting Jesus rely on the angels to protect Him; for they certainly do His bidding. Do not be deceived, beloved, all false doctrine has its origin in the misinterpretation of Holy Scripture. But Jesus is the superior exegete. He is the faithful interpreter of Holy Scripture; indeed He is the substance of Holy Scripture! The fulfillment of all the psalms and the prophets.

And the irony cannot be sweeter, for the very Psalm Satan misinterprets for his own devices, you sang this morning according to its proper understanding: You, [that is, the Lord Christ] shall tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent He will trample underfoot. Is not Satan described as a roaring lion and an ancient serpent? Does Christ, the Seed of the Woman, not crush the tempter’s head beneath His own pierced foot?

Surely Satan knows this prophecy! And this final reality drives him mad with rage. Thus he seeks for Christ to forgo the Cross. I will give you the kingdoms of the world and their glory if You fall down and worship me. But Christ’s kingdom is not of this world. And His glory is hidden in shame and suffering. He will not reach across the boundary established by His Father and grasp at that which has not been given. For worship belongs to the Lord. It does not belong to the self.

And our Lord has had enough, Be gone Satan! He exercises the prince of demons from His presence and ultimately from the world; for He shall defeat him not with might of arms, but with a power made perfect in weakness. He shall destroy the old evil foe by the Cross. Though this reality is not fully consummated, for you, dear Christians, still experience temptation and trial, the allurements of the flesh and doubt of God’s Word.

Beloved, the temptations that befall you are common to man. And ultimately, they are one - to doubt the Word of the Lord, to approach His good gifts not as recipients of His love, but to grasp at that which He has mercifully withheld; to reinterpret His Word according to your own experience. For we are in constant danger of forgetting that we are God’s beloved and that He has our best interest at heart.

But fear not, for He has put enmity between you and Satan by the Seed of the Woman. He has sent His only-begotten Son to be your Adam, not the man from the dust, but the Man conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary. He is the very Word who came from the Father and He is the Bread of Life. From Him and by Him and in Him you live. Clothed in the garments of His sacrifice, the Father has provided for your way back into Paradise. He has set you free from sin and Satan. His Word has once again established the boundaries in which you live. And His Cross is your Tree of Life, placed at the center of all things.

Holy fast your confession, the confession of the truth of His Word. Hold fast to His gifts of Baptism and Absolution, to the little Word that fells the Evil One, the Word made flesh for you. And draw near with confidence to His throne of grace, in which He serves you, the object and recipient of His love and mercy. For here in the Sacrament of the Altar He joins together all good things - food for your body and soul, the Word of forgiveness, and the true worship of the Lord your God that receives in faith gifts from His hand.

In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.